Colliding polarized trends within contemporary art, Joe Ramiro Garcia merges Pop Art’s distanced reproductions of cultural icons with an expressionistic, painterly aesthetic. Colorful images of whimsical figures and everyday objects in his playfully provocative paintings animate a space that seems at once recognizable and eerily mysterious – a tableau of discordant players depicting an enigmatic narrative. The artist asserts, “I hope to displace the familiar just enough to encourage re-familiarization with the constant flux of urban experience.” By referencing both popular culture and private experiences, his psychologically resonant oil-and-alkyd paintings navigate between the delight of instant recognition and the riddle of a dream or elusive memory. Born in Houston, Texas, Garcia attended Houston’s High School for the Performing and Visual Arts before studying at the Art Institute of Chicago. He was honored in 2005 with a Painters and Sculptors Grant from the Joan Mitchell Foundation. Exhibited in museums and private institutions internationally, his works are featured in several books on Southwestern art.